Fuel systems typically employ multiple fuel injectors to inject high pressure fuel into combustion chambers of an engine. This high pressure fuel is supplied to the fuel injectors via a common manifold secured to the engine and individual supply lines connected between the common manifold and the injectors. During manufacture and assembly of the manifold, supply lines, injectors, and engine, it is possible for misalignment to occur between the various mounting devices (e.g., holes, protrusions, studs, ports, seats, etc.). In fact, this misalignment can be significant enough that excessive stresses are experienced by the supply lines and the common manifold during the assembly process and operation of the engine, or that assembly may not even be possible. If left unchecked, the excessive stresses could possibly result in rupture of or leakage from the supply lines or common manifold.
One way of reducing the stress induced in the supply lines and improving the likelihood of proper assembly and fluid sealing is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,928,984 (the '984 patent) issued to Shamnine et al. on Aug. 16, 2005. The '984 patent describes a high pressure fuel system having a common fuel rail bolted to an engine block, and an elbow bolted between each cylinder head and the common fuel rail. The elbow includes a spherical sealing surface that engages a conical seating surface of the common fuel rail to provide fluid retention between the rail and elbow. In this manner, during slight misalignment between the engine block and the cylinder head, the spherical sealing surface may pivot within the conical seating surface and remain in sealing contact without inducing significant stresses in the rail or elbow.
Although the high pressure fluid system of the '984 patent may provide fluid retention between the common rail and cylinder head while minimizing the stress induced to the elbow or common rail during misaligned assembly, it may be complex, costly, and not applicable in all situations. Specifically, the high pressure fluid system of the '984 patent requires many different components to connect the elbow to the common fuel rail. The large number of components increases the assembly time, the associated assembly cost, and the initial system hardware cost. In addition, although the high pressure fluid system of the '984 patent may accommodate slight misalignments, greater misalignments within the system may still induce undesired levels of stress.
The fluid system of the present disclosure solves one or more of the problems set forth above.